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Yola, Adamawa State — September 14, 2026

A former Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, Alhaji Kabiru Mijinyawa, has defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Action Peoples Movement (APM) alongside thousands of his supporters, deepening a wave of political realignment in the state ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Mijinyawa, who represents Yola South State Constituency and served as Speaker during the administration of former Governor Muhammad Umaru Jibrilla Bindow, announced his exit in a letter dated September 13, 2026, addressed to the APC’s Adamawa State chairman. He cited a lack of rule of law, transparency, and internal democracy within the party, singling out the conduct of the recent APC primary elections in the state.

“The recent APC primary elections in Adamawa State were a demonstration that the party lacks internal democracy; people were picked as candidates without due process,” Mijinyawa said. In an earlier letter to his ward chairman, he added: “This decision was not taken lightly. However, I have become deeply concerned with the manner in which the recent APC primary election in my constituency was conducted. The process lacked fairness, transparency, and credibility, and was inconsistent with the principles of internal democracy.”

Mijinyawa’s move follows a string of substituted candidacies that have roiled the state party: APM governorship candidate Abdulrahman Bashir Haske was alleged to have originally won the APC’s governorship ticket before being replaced with Alhaji Ahmad Galadima; in the Adamawa Central Senatorial District, Abdulraman Abbati, who had been unopposed, was replaced with Alhaji Salihu Mustapha; and in Adamawa South, Peter Fwa, also unopposed, was replaced with Felix Tangwami. Fwa has since joined the APM along with thousands of his own supporters.

Mijinyawa’s exit came just two days after hundreds of APC chieftains, led by former PDP chairman Alhaji Tahir Shehu, also defected to the APM. Shehu had urged the APC leadership to urgently reconcile aggrieved members, warning that failure to do so risked deepening the party’s divisions ahead of the general election.

Reacting to the wave of departures, APC publicity secretary in Adamawa State, Dogo Victor, described the development as “political tourism,” questioning the electoral weight of some of the defectors and expressing confidence the APC would still win the 2027 election, citing the performance of Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s administration and the party’s grassroots strength.

A blow to two of Adamawa’s biggest political stakeholders

The defections land as a setback for two prominent figures with deep roots in Adamawa politics. Governor Fintiri, who defected from the PDP to the APC in February 2026 — a move the Presidency’s Bayo Onanuga said at the time delivered “Atiku’s entire home base” to the ruling party — now faces visible fractures within the very structure his defection was meant to consolidate, undercutting the “APC juggernaut” narrative built around his switch and the state’s subsequent claim to the largest APC membership base in the country.

The wave of defections is also being read as a complication for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the ADC’s 2027 presidential candidate and a native of Adamawa State, whose home-state advantage was already dented by Fintiri’s earlier move to the APC. With Mijinyawa, Shehu, Fwa, and thousands of supporters now gravitating to the APM rather than back toward Atiku’s ADC, the state’s opposition vote risks fragmenting across multiple platforms rather than consolidating around Atiku’s native-son candidacy — a dynamic analysts say could blunt any advantage he might otherwise draw from contesting in his home state.

A boost for Makinde’s national ambitions

The defections represent a tangible gain for the APM’s presidential candidate, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, whose national campaign — built around what the party calls a “Reset Nigerian Movement” and an alliance backed by elements of the PDP — has been working to establish structures beyond its South-West base. Absorbing a bloc of thousands of supporters led by a former state Assembly Speaker, in a North-East state central to two of Makinde’s principal 2027 rivals (Tinubu’s APC and Atiku’s ADC), gives the APM a concrete organisational foothold in a region where it has previously had limited presence — precisely the kind of national spread analysts say Makinde’s campaign has needed to be seen as a credible contender beyond Oyo and the South-West.